Tuesday, January 10, 2012

3 Factors Fueling Growth in Mobile Health Apps

The market for mobile health apps is forecast to grow 70% over the next five years, to $392 million. Beyond improvements in technology there are several factors fueling this blistering growth.

Increased incidence of chronic diseases. According to the CDC
“chronic diseases – such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and
arthritis – are among the most common, costly and preventable of all health
problems in the US.” Among these, diabetes
is particularly significant. According the CDC’s 2011 National Diabetes FactSheet approximately 26 million or 8.3% of Americans have diabetes. As reported in the January 2012 edition of Health Affairs, an issue devoted entirely to diabetes,
an additional 79 million Americans are at high risk of developing the disease over the
next 10 years. The cost to treat and
manage these patients is enormous. Health
Affairs notes that $1 out of every $3 in Medicare
is spent on the disease. UnitedHealth,
one of the nation’s largest health insurers, estimates that treating diabetes
in the US will cost $3.4 trillion from 2010 through 2020.

Proven benefits of self-monitoring, communicating & collaborating. A study
at Kaiser Permanente studied nearly 35,000 patients with chronic health
conditions, including diabetes over a two month period. The study found that those patients who used
email to communicate with their doctors saw a statistically significant
improvement in various health measures. Mobile
health apps are powerful because they facilitate more frequent communication
and allow patients to more actively participate in disease management.

Shift in how patients access health information. A survey
conducted by the Pew Internet project found that 9 percent of cell phone owners
have apps that they use to manage their health. The survey also found African Americans and
Latinos were more likely to use mobile health apps. This is significant since, as reported by the
CDC, these populations
are at increased risk of developing chronic illnesses such as diabetes.

A sampling of mobile health apps for diabetes

Given the market size and the importance of
disease monitoring and management, health apps for diabetics are among the most
important being developed. The popular DiabetesMine
blog does a nice job profiling the dozens of options available to
patients. Some apps that have garnered
significant attention include the following:

In 2010 WellDoc received FDA
clearance to market its DiabetesManager. The software based app includes a medication
adherence program and real-time transmission of blood glucose data to physicians.
In a 12-month randomized controlled
trial, whose results were published in the September 2011 issue of Diabetes Care, patients
using the WellDoc app in addition to their usual care recorded a statistically
significant decline in their glycated hemoglobin levels during the study
period. Patients must use this phone-based
system in partnership with their healthcare providers.

The Glooko iPhone
app introduced late last fall, enables patients to more easily record and report
their blood glucose readings. By connecting their existing blood glucose monitor
to an iPhone via a cable patients can use the app to send their readings to physicians by email or fax. The iBG
Star blood glucose monitor from Sanofi-Aventis cuts the cable by plugging
directly into a patient’s iPhone. The monitor also received FDA clearance in December 2011.

Another high tech solution to blood glucose monitoring was
reported last week by Walter
Mossberg , a technology columnist for
the Wall Street Journal, who is also a Type 2 diabetic. Mossberg reviewed the Telcare blood glucose
meter which wirelessly transmits readings to a patient’s iPhone and a secure
database that can be accessed by a patient’s physician. The Telcare
meter has been also been cleared by the FDA.

Beyond smartphones

A lot of attention has been focused on using smart
phones to manage diseases but not all patients have them. Text messaging has also been successfully
used to send patients important health messages and reminders, as demonstrated
by the Text4Baby
campaign, a program for expectant mothers. More recently the Beacon
Community health program announced the development of an initiative
for diabetes management using text messaging at its sites located in Louisiana
and Michigan, areas where the impact of diabetes has been particularly
significant.

What’s next?

We can expect to see continued development of mobile devices
to allow patient self-monitoring for chronic conditions. Increasingly, these devices will facilitate
sharing of patient level data with health care providers and communication
between patients and providers in response to these data.